Fast as Flight has an edge on Tapeta

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Although she’s had the majority of her success on grass, Fast as Flight has also shown an affinity for the Tapeta surface at Gulfstream Park, an attribute that should serve her well when the stakes-winning mare goes postward among the favorites in Sunday’s main event, the $100,000 Orange Blossom.

The overnight handicap for older fillies and mares will be decided at a mile and 70 yards and highlights an 11-race program that begins at 12:10 p.m.

Fast as Flight has been idle since rallying from just off the pace to a 2 1/4-length victory in the Anchorage Stakes contested over a yielding turf course at Ellis Park on July 2. The win was the second in five starts this season for the daughter of Air Force Blue, who has finished worse than second but once in 2023, a late-running fourth in the Grade 3 Honey Fox here on March 4.

Trained by Bryan Lynch, Fast as Flight has made two starts over the Tapeta course, finishing third against maiden competition in her 2022 debut before coming back four weeks later to post a wire-to-wire, two-length decision over similar opposition for which she received an 88 Beyer Figure.

“We just decided to try and give her a bit of a freshening after her last win with the goal of pointing her to some of the graded stakes on the grass down here this winter,” said Lynch. “Obviously she’s already run creditably over this surface and she’s doing very well coming into the race, which I think should really set her up nicely for the Suwannee River [a Grade 3 on Dec. 30] at the end of the month.”

Fast as Flight could vie for favoritism with a couple of other Midwest invaders, Sister Lou Ann and Sand and Sea, both of whom also have limited experience on Tapeta but own victories over the surface here earlier in their careers.

Sister Lou Ann will try to rebound from a disappointing sixth against a strong group of allowance rivals over the Keeneland turf on Oct. 21, a major regression from her previous outing, a 1 1/4-length triumph at Kentucky Downs in the One Dreamer, for which she received a career-best 88 Beyer. Trained by Saffie Joseph Jr., Sister Lou Ann won her only previous start over the Tapeta, in just her second lifetime start, leading at every call before drawing off to a 7 3/4-length tally during the fall of her 2-year-old campaign.

Sand and Sea is a versatile sort who has registered three career wins, one on turf, one over a wet main track, and a third in her only local appearance over the Tapeta in the spring of 2022, a late-running, three-length maiden win going five furlongs. Trained at the time by Bill Mott, she has since been transferred to his son Riley, for whom she has won twice and banked over $105,000 in earnings thus far this season.

Battle Cry should also receive plenty of attention from the bettors having won her last three starts and four of five tries over the Tapeta course, although she’ll be taking a big step up in class on Sunday.

Coco is the lone 3-year-old in the field and was stakes placed in her most recent start when beaten a neck in the Cellars Shiraz over the Tapeta strip on Nov. 3. Although she’s made all but one of her nine starts against her own age group, the Arindel homebred did step out against older competition to dominate an overnight handicap by seven lengths while earning a lifetime-best 88 Beyer here on Aug. 12.